Drifters
Drifters was created from the work done on Catch My Drift, but reworked to focus less on building ships part by part and more on traditional customization in racing games. It also prioritizes single player, with integration with Steam leaderboards for several time trial modes.
Drifters is still in active development. I lead a small team of four who - in their free time - work to design and create code, audio, maps and models. We operate under the name Rolling Start Studios.
We hope to have a demo out before the end of 2026, and a full release in 2027.
Flight Racing
Drifters is a flight racing game, inspired by the flight model and mechanics of games like Elite: Dangerous and Skydrift. It is a physics-based racer, but opts to seek a middle ground between full simulation and arcade. Flying close the ground reduces your drag; hot engines are more efficient; stay in an opponents slip stream to increase your speed; drifting charges a battery you can expend to give you a big boost.
Customization
You can pick your ship’s internal parts, which provide passive bonuses. This includes thrusters, power source, battery, computer, fuel tanks and more. Each part provides different bonuses, at some cost. A more powerful thruster may provide more acceleration and top speed, but the greater mass will make your ship turn slower.
Replays
You can watch any race you participate in as a replay. Analyze your decision-making and improve as a pilot, or make videos. You can watch your gameplay from a third or first person perspective, or detach from your ship and watch from the perspective of a floating, movable camera.
Project Details
Drifters is a project in ongoing development. The videos above are not indicative of the final release, and show a pre-alpha version of the game - especially the visual and audio components of the game. Additional core features that are missing are Gauntlet - a rogue-like mode - and online play, both of which are currently the primary focus of development.
Drifters is built using Unreal Engine. The map’s landscapes are created using Gaea. FMOD is used for audio. Blender for modeling.
Team
Kevin Mahoney - Director, programmer, gameplay
Matthew Mahoney - Audio
Dave Rollins - Map design, 3D modeling
Ben Manter - Website, art
Modes
Time Trials allows you to race in Daily, Weekly and Seasonal races, and against ghosts of your previous attempts. Integrated with Steam leaderboards.
Career allows you to play in eight race tournaments in bots, with the highest score winning.
Custom allows you to create a race with bots and whatever settings you desire.
Features
The features below are a non-exhaustive list of the current state of the game. More features are to come (see the next section for more details on plans).
Debug lines drawn to show trace lines that detect parts, which is used for drag calculation.
Ground effect debug, showing traces done to detect closeness to surface, negating drag.
Client debug lines for netcode client prediction. Yellow is before rollback. Red is after rollback. Green is the final result after replaying inputs.
The leaderboard shows a record of all races you’ve played in, sorted by your result.
Controls can be mapped through settings menu.
All races are shown in the replay menu, where they can be watched, played against, or deleted.
An example of the build menu widgets when creating ships.
Tuning Window allows the player to tune each part that can be tuned, such as changing how much fuel is in the tank, setting thrust levels, setting lift generation of wings, etc.
Specifications window shows important statistical information about the ship, including its max velocity, acceleration, thrust, lift, drag, mass, etc. Most specs can be expanded to show even more detailed information about the specifications in each direction
Simulator allows you to simulate how the ship will perform given certain inputs, such as thrust levels, if using boost, fuel and boost fuel levels, and flap angle.
Part Panel can be see by hovering over a part in the part selection panel , displaying its statistics.
Combat
Each ship can optionally be outfitted with offensive or defensive hardpoints, which require activation to turn online for a short period before going on cooldown. Offensive weapons - such as laser cannon, missiles or the railgun - can target other drifters to clear a path for you. If you prefer a defensive playstyle, you can also use rear shields to block incoming fire, flares to confuse missiles or cloaking devices to disappear entirely.
Ship management
Your drifter’s internals are in constant flux. The best pilots push the boundaries of their ship’s heat, charge, hull and shield, and use their hardpoints when cooldowns expire and at opportune times. Tune your ship’s aerodynamics, power diversion and thrust between races to further optimize your ship to your playstyle.